The reinforcement of polymers with nano-materials can greatly improve the mechanical and also the chemical/thermal stability of polymeric materials. Production of polymer composite materials and components is a process of great practical and technological importance. High quality polymer nano-composite materials show significant elastic modulus, hardness, strength, tear strength, fracture toughness and wear performances. Available elastomer composite products may be manufactured from carbon black/silica filled amorphous rubbery raw materials. For example, un-vulcanized rubber, carbon black/silica and vulcanizing agents may be mixed, followed by molding and curing under high temperature and high pressure. To further improve polymer composite performance, nanomaterials other than carbon black, such as the carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon nanofibers (CNFs), nanoclays, and other nanoparticles, may be mixed with a polymer.
Rubber composite fabrication may utilize mechanical mixing of fillers and curing compounds together with rubber matrix, which can result in dispersion uniformity problems, especially for non-spherical fillers such as CNTs and CNFs. It is understood that controlling nanomaterial dispersion and interfacial bonding strength are two of the most important issues that need to be addressed before polymer carbon composite products can be reliably produced. Due to viscoelasticity of polymer matrices and the small sized of the nanofillers, mechanical mixing can be ineffective and often result in poor filler dispersion in the polymer matrix, especially when the filler concentration reaches the percolation threshold.
Methods and systems for producing polymer nanofiller composite materials are discussed herein. The methods and systems overcome the challenges in mixing multi-scale materials by direct mechanical blending, and utilize a reliable solution based approach to synthesizing the carbon nano-composite materials.